Fiber & Fabric From the Ground Up – Jan 2016

Increase your household resilience by learning how to create clothing, household and decorative items using new or re-purposed materials, and how to maintain and repair the ones you already have! This full weekend of workshops and classes will expand the possibilities for fiber and fabric arts and crafts in your life, as a hobby and/or as a way to contribute to your household economy.

All sessions are hands-on and taught by local experts. You can attend the whole weekend, one day, or individual workshops, as you wish.

Felting Fun with Fran
Come and learn how to wet felt using a resist. We will make a bag/device cover, your choice of size. I will bring the wool and colourful bits and pieces to incorporate into your felt.
Instructor – Fran Cudworth
Materials Fee $10

Evaluating a FleeceWhile it is possible to get processed wool roving for hand spinning, it is also very satisfying to take the raw fleece from a sheep and prepare and process the fibre yourself. This class will cover how to evaluate a wool fleece for spinning, the fleece properties of several breeds of sheep from a hand spinners perspective, and how to clean and store wool. This is a hands-on class as fleece evaluation cannot be done by sight alone. Students should be prepared to handle unwashed wool.
Instructor – Val McKeen

Basic Spinning on a Drop Spindle
Students will learn how to prepare wool fibres for spinning, basic hand spinning technique, and how to prepare hand spun yarn for use in other projects. No prerequisites. Students welcome to bring their own spindle but spindles will be provided in class.
Instructor – Val McKeen
Materials fee $10
What to bring: a drop spindle if you have one.

Make a Felted Mug Cozy
The class will cover how to take an item and shrink it on purpose (or shrink it even further than it already is), cut it into patterns, methods of stitching pieces together, and the making of a mug/cup cozy.
Instructor – Roberta Pearson

Off-loom weaving
Using a nail-on-board technique of tapestry weaving, we will explore yarns and color. Have fun and learn. Bring any colorful yarn bits to add to the mix, or not. I will bring boards , yarns and needles.
Instructor – Hana-Louise Braun
Materials Fee $15

Beginner Crochet
Always wanted to learn to crochet but don’t have a Mom or Grandma to show you? This is the class for you. You will learn 2 basic stitches and will leave with the knowledge (and hopefully a beginning) for the construction of a pair of fingerless gloves.
Instructor – Roberta Pearson
Materials Fee $10 – includes crochet hook and yarn to take home.

Decorative Mending
Mending can make items more than serviceable – it can add beauty too. Gather your worn and holey clothing and bring it along to learn how to mend stylishly. I will supply patching materials, suitable thread and needles as well as hand outs.
Instructor – Marlaine Taylor
Materials Fee $3

Dyeing Natural Fibers with Natural Dyes
In this course you will learn how to extract dye from natural materials to use for dyeing wool and silk. We will also talk about how this method can be used with natural fabrics.
Instructor – Amber Friedman
Materials Fee $25
What to bring: sketch book to take notes

Tools & Tips for the Modern Renaissance Crafter
Join the D.I.Y. Revolution today! This class is packed with step by step tips & tools of the trade to assist today’s modern crafter. Together we will learn how to successfully select a project/pattern, how to dissect and understand the instructions and then how to continue to build the project. While we will be learning with a knitting pattern model, the skills you will learn are transferable to other crafts. Your take away is a toolbox of resources and confidence. D.I.Y. Demo, time permitting….maybe hands on.
Instructor – Carola
What to Bring: notebook, writing utensil

Spinning art yarn on a drop spindle (beginner class)
This class will cover general information on spinning, carding, dying and washing fleece plus lots of hands on spinning. At the end of your two hour class you will have spun your own art yarn. Drop spindles (made specially to spin bulky art yarn) and art batts (made specially for spinning art yarn) are available to this class at a special discounted rate. No previous experience necessary.
Instructor – Katrina Craig
Materials Fee: Spindle $25, Batts $10 each

Fibre Companions
Learn all about the animals that provide us with such beautiful fibre and the uses of each fibre. We’ll discuss all sizes from angora rabbits you can keep in your home to sheep and cashmere goats. Participants will get the opportunity to meet some of these fuzzy creatures as well.
Instructor – Samantha Sherman

Paper Cloth
Create beautiful and unique sheets of cloth suitable for book covers, wallets and what have you or to simply frame as art. I will supply base fabric, paints and embellishments.
Instructor – Marlaine Taylor
Materials Fee: $6.

Upcyling! Reusing fibers to make Unique clothing
Bring old clothes to combine into something new, make sweater art, or create something to wear totally out of scrap fabric….this workshop is a hands on creation station exploring the possibilities of up-cycling used fiber into new clothes. This is not a workshop about REPAIRS (don’t bring broken zippers) but asks you to come with some ideas and some materials to create something unique for yourself (without getting too complicated)
Instructor – Alisha van Belle
Materials Fee: $5
What to Bring: Clothing and scraps you would like to upcycle. Bring if you have them: WORKING serger, fabric scissors, pins, chalk. I will also have many Bamboo knit scraps to play with if you don’t have any of your own.
Sewing experience and serger experience are an asset.

Event Logistics

Walk the Talk: this weekend aims to be zero waste and support local producers. Please help us reduce our carbon footprint by carpooling, biking, walking or using the bus to get to and from the site!

Date: Sat and Sun Jan 23 and 24 2016

Location: Cranberry Community Hall, 6828 Cranberry St (at the top of the hill: NOT the Senior’s Centre on the corner!)
Bus route 1 stops just down the hill from the hall.